Get Ready to Dance: Bermuda-Style!

It was a resounding (6-person) "Yes!  Please tell us more about Bermuda!"  So on to the fun.  The actual fun, as dearest Considerer asked some questions about nightlife and what sort of fun is to be had.

In case you missed them:   Part 1     Part 2

To get you in the mood, here's a little music while you read.  Reggae and soca are the preferred genre of Bermudians.   I give you Byron Lee.

 

Hubby and I aren't what you would call party people. Most days after work, we would head out to a park close to our apartment to play a little tennis and cool off with a dip in the ocean. Fortunately, we had friends who had lived on the island much longer than we had. They showed us how the locals live.

I don't know of a single group of people who live near water that don't make the water a large part of their life.  Be it a river, a lake, or the ocean, people enjoy time on, in, and next to the water.  It's calming.  It's beautiful.  It's adventurous.  Bermudians are no different.  However, the water around Bermuda is very different than other places, which lends to some unique opportunities.

When looking at the photo above, the darker the blue the deeper the water.  That bright area north of Bermuda is a thriving, vibrant coral reef.  That reef has a whole lot to do with both Bermuda's history and the lives of Bermudians.  (And it makes the beach sand pink!)

That reef has caught over 300 ships unaware and sunk them.  Some of those ships are still there. 

That reef also keeps the waves to a minimum.  It is some of the most tranquil, clear ocean water I have ever seen.  Standing on shore, you can look into the water and see massive parrot fish.

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Or barracuda.  Or Portuguese Man-of-War jelly fish.   But I'd rather look at the parrot fish.  The more adventurous types spend lots of time snorkeling and scuba diving.  We tried snorkeling once.  I had learned on our honeymoon in Key West that I am not good at snorkeling, but I really wanted to give it a try here.  We went with some friends to have dinner on the beach, then donned our snorkel gear and swam on out.  Within just a few yards of the beach, there was a HUGE hole where all sorts of fun sea life was hanging out.  I was a mixture of awed and scared to death.  Who knew what dangerous creature lived in that hole?  I didn't stay out there for long.

 

On weekends, you will find hundreds of people out on their boats, anchoring with some friends for a picnic and a swim.  Or some death-defying jumping. 

 

 

See that person in the green bathing suit flying through the air without the safety of a trapeze?  That would be me.  Just a touch terrifying, but all the kids were doing it.  Really.  The kids were jumping.

 

Look at the photo of Bermuda again, and you'll notice that the reef doesn't go all the way around the island.  The other side has deep water pretty much right up to the shore.  While there are waves on the south shore, there aren't any surfers.   Much of the shore is very rocky.   The beaches don't have surfers either, though, since when the wind gets high enough to make decent-sized waves, the beaches are usually closed due to dangerous rip tides. 

 

Hubby and I spent one Saturday hiking the shore. 

 

Such a stud, no?



I had to have been young and healthy.  Those are most certainly not proper shoes for such a hike.

Need more music?  How about Jam Bermuda?  Close your eyes, though.  There is a half naked woman on the cover.  Bermudians aren't known for wearing a whole lot of clothing while they are dancing, even in the parades.   

 

 

As you can imagine, fishing is a popular pasttime.  We went out with friends for some deep-sea fishing one time.  For those who have never gone into open waters, it is not easy to get your "sea legs" in an itty-bitty fishing boat.  (If you ever go, take Dramamine.  Our friend didn't, and he was miserable the entire time.)  We were able to catch some huge tuna, which we immediately took home and ate for dinner.  Fortunately, when the fish is that fresh, even a person with very limited cooking experience and a teeny, tiny studio apartment kitchen has a hard time ruining it.

 

As I said before, there are no fast food joints on the island.  Eating out is an experience to be enjoyed, not rushed through.  Bermudians don't rush.  Ever.  British-type pubs are popular, and we tried most of them.  We especially enjoyed one called the Hog Penny.  Oh, the fish chowder there was divine.  (My dad actually remembers this place from when he was on the island during his Marine Corp days.) 

 

There are a couple of night clubs on the island, but they are mostly for the expats.  I don't remember many Bermudians hanging out there.  Of course, we only went once.

 

There is one weekend, though, where Bermudians let their hair down and party for real.  Every year in late July/early August, the island shuts down for four days (another difference from the US.  Here it is illegal for a bank to shut down for 4 days.  Not so in Bermuda, much to the chagrin of Hubby and the other programmers who were installing new software at a bank.) to celebrate Emancipation Day (the end of slavery on the island) and Somer's Day (to celebrate the island's discovery (Admiral Sir George Somers shipwrecked on the reef in 1609.  He and his crew were the first humans to stand on the island.))   I hardly know where to begin when describing this weekend. 

 

 I guess we'll start with the fact that half the Bermudians rent out their houses (for boatloads of cash) to people who flock to the island for the weekend.  Where do the Bermudians go? you may ask.  Do they fly off on their own vacations?  Nope.  They move to the beaches.  They actually pitch tents on the beach and live there for four days, so the party never has to end.

 

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Also on that weekend is the Bermuda Cup Match, where the east side cricket team plays the west side cricket team.  As US citizens, we were not familiar with the game of cricket.  After two days of watching it, I still don't understand it.  All I can say is, there is a reason cricket has not caught on here in my home country.  It's too daggum long.  And boring.  I am not kidding when I tell you that half the time, this Cup Match is decided by a coin toss.  After two days of play, there is no winner.  Can you even imagine if the Super Bowl ended with no winner?  No.  No you can't. 

 

Gambling on Bermuda is completely illegal.  Except for this weekend.  Tents are set up all around the cricket pitch where rowdy games of Crown and Anchor are played.  It's a simple dice game, but people go crazy over it.   The tents are filled with folks having some fun at the tables.

 

For the week around the holidays, there are concerts.  And dancing.  Lots of dancing.  And lots of music.  There is a parade with music blaring the whole time.  They were flash mobbing before it was the "thing" to do.  Hubby and I actually had the chance to go see Hootie and the Blowfish in a small little club.  This was back in the day before anyone really knew them (and how many of my younger readers have ever heard of them?  They had a fairly short run in the popularity race.), so we didn't go.  We have kicked ourselves ever since.  Byron Lee (the musician from above) was the headliner for the week.  We weren't even offered tickets to that concert.

 

Basically, though, Bermudians live like the rest of us do.  They work, they enjoy spending time with friends, they do some recreational activities on the weekends.  They just get to do it at a slower pace in one of the most beautiful places on earth. 

 

Thank you all for letting me relive our days in Bermuda.  You've put on your happy faces while I went through my vacation photos and gave you my research-paper-type synopsis.  No one does that in real life in person.  I know.  I've tried.  (If you have any other questions, let me know.  I love this topic, especially when we are living through endlessly cold and dreary days.)

 

Have a lovely day! 



A Slice of Heaven, Part One, Unless I Never Write a Part 2

Long, long ago, before kids, before wrinkles, before serious responsibility took over our lives, Hubby and I lived a dream life.  For seven months, we were paid to live in Bermuda. I often think of those days as I dig us out of a foot of snow.

I have mentioned our Bermuda residency a couple of times in comments and such, and each time I am asked if I have ever written about the experience.  I haven't, not because I didn't love living there, but because I wouldn't even know where to start.  I've decided that it doesn't matter where, I just need to start.  I'll make it some sort of series that I throw onto the blog whenever the mood strikes.

The only thing that frustrates me is I don't have beautiful photos to show you.  We lived there an eon of years ago.  I had not even thought of a photography business then, and I certainly didn't have a good camera.  And, there was no such thing as digital cameras.  Everything was film, so I had no idea what kind of shots I was actually getting.  I will post photos, but don't expect to drool with jealousy over them.

In February 1995, Hubby was working as a computer programmer and was sent to Bermuda to write code for a bank there.  Bermuda is very protective of work permits, so I was unable to get a paying job.  After a month or so, I found a daycare and offered my services as a volunteer.  It was one of the best things I did.  I really got to see how the locals lived while working there.

It was quite a shock to the system, moving from the gigantic America, where a person could spend his entire life traveling the country and never have to visit the same place twice, to a country that is only one mile wide and 25 miles long.  For seven months, I loved it.  I don't think I could have lived there much longer, though.  I started to feel a tad bit trapped.

 

Remember, ONE mile wide.  One.  My current driveway is almost half a mile long. 

Because of the size of the island, travel is also quite different from home.  Only full-time residents are allowed to own a car, an itty-bitty little car, and each household was limited to one.  Everyone else had to ride scooters.  Not motorcycles.  Scooters.

This is our actual scooter, but not actually me.  We flew Hubby's mom out for Mother's Day, and he was trying to get her comfortable with the scooter before we headed out onto real roads.

The speed limit for the entire island was 25kph.  (That's kilometers for my American friends.  We also bought litres of gas and drove on the left side of the road.)  No freeways on this little island.

Hubby and I had one scooter.  I would drive him to work in the morning, go do whatever I was doing that day, then pick him up in the afternoon.  (Not night.  Those Bermudians are a laid-back lot, and he never, ever worked past 4:30.  Frequently, everyone cut out at 3:30 and hit the bar below the offices for a beer or two.)

Hubby's desk was actually butted-up against that top middle window.  When he looked up, he looked directly outside.  He and his coworkers would be found under one of those green umbrellas at least two afternoons a week.

See the cars?  That's as big as they got.

Right behind the (pathetic) photographer is the dock where the cruise ships docked.  Hubby always had a good time watching all of the tourists disembark.  Watching them all rent and ride scooters for the first time in their lives was beyond comical.

And while we're talking Hubby's job, we'll discuss business attire in Bermuda.  I'm sure most of you know what I mean when I say "Bermuda shorts".  They are tailored shorts that fall just above the knee.  In Bermuda, that is what men wear to work.  And they don't go with boring colors of brown or black.  Grown, rich, businessmen wear pastel pink, blue, green, and yellow shorts.  While the look of these men heading to work in colorful shorts took us back a bit, what really made us smile was what these men wore with there shorts. 

Everyone wears knee-high socks the same color as his Bermuda shorts. 

Yup, pastel pink shorts with pastel pink socks.

With a white shirt, suit jacket, tie, and dress shoes.

Hubby didn't jump right on that bandwagon.  He wore his usual suits for at least three weeks.  But the teasing and peer pressure finally got to him, and he caved.

Kinda.

He couldn't bring himself to wear the pastel, but he did wear the shorts.

And sweet mama, he wore knee-high socks.

Good look, no?

This photo was taken inside our little studio apartment.  There aren't high-rise complexes.  Instead, many of the full-time residents have apartments attached to their houses to generate some extra income.  See that sliding-door behind Hubby?  It leads out to a patio, which, if you took the 5 steps down to the other patio, you could jump into the ocean. 

See the window next to Hubby?  You can see the ocean beyond the bushes.  Cruise ships go past that window before heading around the bend to dock in Hamilton (the capitol) in front of Hubby's office.

The red dot is Hamilton, approximately.  The pink dot is where we lived, approximately.  Can you see the dark line in the green circle?  The darker the blue, the deeper the water.  That line is a channel that was dug specifically for ships, including cruise ships, to get to Hamilton.

We'll end today's installment with one of my favorite Bermuda traditions.  Our time there included the days of Lent and Easter.   On Good Friday, every business on the island closed its doors, and just about every person on the island went to the beaches.  They weren't there to swim, but to fly kites. 

The story goes, a teacher was trying to explain Jesus' Ascension to his students.  To demonstrate, he took them to the beach and flew a kite.  It caught on, and has become a purely Bermudian festival.

While common kites that we Americans are used to are flown, the sky is predominantly filled with specific kites the Bermudians make.  Tissue paper is a popular material, and they are normally hexagonal in shape.  There is a small "bunch" in the center that creates a humming sound when in the air.

We spent hours sitting on a cliff (that one in the photo below, actually), watching and listening to the gorgeous kites back dropped by the beautiful blue sea and sky.  Every Good Friday since, I have thought of the Bermudians and their fantastic tradition and wished I could be there experiencing it with them. 

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Have a lovely day!